Gutter guards formed of wire mesh are presently available commercially for installation along the gutters of houses and other buildings for the purpose of blocking the entry of leaves and other debris while at the same time allowing rain water to drain into the gutters. Installation is complicated by the fact that such a wire mesh guard is commonly marketed in rolled form and must therefore be unrolled or flattened prior to attachment. Because of its wire mesh construction, such a guard is readily deformed, increasing difficulties of installation and, at least in some instances, reducing the effectiveness of the guard following installation. The usefulness of such a product is further diminished by the difficulty of temporarily removing the guard when it becomes necessary to remove debris that manages to enter the gutter despite the presence of the mesh guard strip.
Efforts have been made to alleviate the latter problem by hinging the wire mesh guard upon a gutter, or upon the roof adjacent the gutter, so that the hinged mesh strip may be more readily lifted and lowered whenever cleaning of a gutter is required. Typical constructions are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,834,091, 3,977,135, 2,469,841, 2,841,100, 2,542,155, 3,420,378, and 4,032,456. While the hinged mounting of such mesh or screen cover strips does facilitate gutter cleaning, it tends to further increase the difficulty of installation, particularly on gutters of the type now commonly in use wherein bridging straps extend over such a gutter at intervals of 18 to 36 inches for bracing and supporting the gutter along the edge of the roof. Furthermore, in operation such mesh gutter guards may be less than satisfactory because deformation of the wire mesh material may interfere with pivotal movement of the guards between their raised and lowered positions.
Accordingly, it is a main object of this invention to provide a hinged gutter guard that is relatively easy to adjust and install regardless of the number and location of mounting straps securing a gutter along the edge of a roof. Specifically, it is an object to provide a gutter guard equipped with preassembled hinges that may be easily positioned by a user for attachment to a roof, and preferably to the undersides of the lower course of shingles along that roof, without interference from the existing mounting straps or brackets supporting the gutter along that roof. The guard, which takes the form of a relatively rigid perforated plate, may be used to help direct and position the hinge straps for attachment to the roof either before or after such straps have been shifted longitudinally along the guard into selected noninterfering positions of adjustment. Once properly located, the hinge straps are simply fixed in place by barbs which project from the tongues of the straps and which engage the undersides of the shingles along the roof's lower edge.
Since the perforated cover plate is formed from relatively rigid sheet material, and ideally from a material capable of recovering its planar condition following the removal of distorting forces, ease of installation is further enhanced and the possibilities of deformation adversely affecting subsequent operation of the guard are reduced.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the perforated rectangular plate is provided with a plurality of elongated slots extending in longitudinal series along one edge thereof to define a series of hinge bars formed integrally with the plate. At least one hinge strap extends through each of the slots, and is provided with a closed loop portion receiving a hinge bar, for pivotally securing the gutter guard to a roof. Since the width of each hinge strap is substantially less than the length of the slot to which it extends, each hinge strap may be readily shifted into the most suitable position of adjustment for attachment to a roof.
Other features, advantages, and objects of the invention will become apparent from the specification and drawings.